More on the Biblical Model of Evangelism in the life of Jesus:
And Jesus went about all Galilee, TEACHING in their synagogues, PREACHING the gospel of the kingdom, and HEALING all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His FAME went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them. GREAT MULTITUDES FOLLOWED Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan. Matthew 4:24-26
Incidentally, having his fame spread is no different than having the internet blow up today over an amazing piece of news.
If we're not evangelizing in the model that Jesus demonstrated, and we do it with words and pursuasion only, then to what are people converted?
The Apostle Paul tried this on Mars Hill in Acts 17. He reasoned with the Athenians from an intellectual perspective. "However, some men joined him and believed." Acts 17:34
The "preaching only" approach bore very little fruit.
The very next verse is Acts18:1, "After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth."
It was in his 1st letter to the Believers in Corinth that he wrote in chapter 2, verses 1, 4 and 5, "And I brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. But my speech and my preaching are NOT with persuasive WORDS of HUMAN WISDOM , but in DEMONSTRATION of the SPIRIT and the POWER, that your FAITH SHOULD NOT BE IN THE WISDOM OF MEN BUT IN THE POWER OF GOD."
It seems pretty straight forward that supernatural manifestations of Holy Spirit should accompany the message we teach or preach. Without healing, signs and wonders are we offering proof for the message we bring? Without demonstrations of God's power, is the message we speak really the Good News or is it a different Gospel?
If God can take a fisherman, a tax collector and a trained zealot assassin and transform them into vessels to advance the kingdom of heaven displaying His mighty signs and wonders and making disciples, then surely he can do so for the average you and me.
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